State Treasury Department officials are prohibited by state law from discussing individual tax cases. Every employer in Michigan who is required to withhold federal income tax under the Internal Revenue Code also must withhold Michigan income tax.

A tax lien gives the state a legal claim to a debtor’s property until the debt is satisfied. Liens can be filed 35 days after a final tax bill was sent if it remains unpaid.

Michigan sends its tax bills and notices of liens to the attention of the CIA’s payroll department in Washington, D.C. in zip code 20505, the same address an agency spokesman directed the State Journal to use on Friday if the newspaper wanted to submit a mail inquiry about the liens.

CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani expressed doubt late Monday the agency would “have something in our name to create a liability in Michigan” and suggested the claims might have originated with an anti-government group.

He also said there are several fake CIA websites on the Internet that give erroneous information about CIA activities in Michigan and other states. He did not respond to an email asking him to confirm or comment on the agency’s activities in Michigan.

Ingham County Recorder of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr. said “there is no doubt the liens are legitimate.” He said he confirmed on Monday that the person who signed the checks to record the liens is a state Treasury employee.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and who represents Ingham County, did not respond to a request for comment.

CIA connections to Michigan• In October 2010, Glenn Shriver, then 29, of Grand Rapids, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide national defense information to intelligence officers of the People’s Republic of China and was sentenced three months later to four years in prison.

The Detroit News reported Shriver attempted to gain employment as a U.S. foreign service officer with the Department of State and as a clandestine service officer with the CIA from 2005 to 2010.

Shriver had lived in China as an undergraduate student and admitted that while living in Shanghai in October 2004 he developed a relationship with Chinese intelligence officers. He admitted he maintained frequent contact with Chinese intelligence officers and received more than $70,000 for his “friendship.”

He was released from prison in December.

■ In January 2012, Iran’s Revolutionary Court convicted a Michigan man of being an undercover CIA agent and subsequently sentenced him to die. Amir Mirzaei Hekmati is a former U.S. Marine who, his family said, was visiting his grandmother in Tehran, Iran when he was arrested. His death sentence later was annulled but he remains imprisoned.